Music recovery

[vaneramos]

Music was always a big part of my life, but grief and depression changed that relationship. Starting in about 1998, I could hardly bear to listen to music when I was home alone. Around the same time the Yamaha ghetto blaster I had used as a stereo since first year university (and hooked up to my disk server) stopped working. My collection of more than 200 Classical CDs and a somewhat smaller popular collection fell into disuse.

As I recovered from depression, music slowly seeped back into my life, but without a stereo system I've relied exclusively on my computer for listening in the apartment. The old Presario was barely equipped to handle it, and would frequently crash under the influence of audio software or online radio. My listening has been largely restricted to the car.

That's rapidly changing, with iTunes on my new computer. During the past week I've hounded out some favourite remembered tracks. These mostly come from 1983 when I was in first year university (before my religious conversion), and the late 90s after I came out and started clubbing. I spent this afternoon loading a big portion of my popular CDs onto my hard drive. Now there are 338 tracks in "My Top Rated" list, and I'm having great fun shuffling and listening to the eclectic music of my life, mixed.

Here's what I've been listening to this afternoon:

1. Annie Lennox: "The gift"
2. Boney M: "Rasputin"
3. Madonna: "Vogue"
4. Jem: "They"
5. Rufus Waingright: "Across the universe"
6. U2: "I still haven't found what I'm looking for"
7. Loreena McKennitt: "La serenissima"
8. Orff: "Circa mea pectora" from Carmina Burana
9. k. d. lang: "Hallelujah"
10. Rufus Wainwright: "I don't know what it is"
11. Yosefa: "A postcard from Morocco"
12. Men Without Hats: "Safety dance"
13. Boy George: "Crying game"
14. U2: "Window in the skies"
15. Men At Work: "Maria"
16. Madonna: "Nothing really matters"
17. Rufus Wainwright: "In a graveyard"
18. Rufus Wainwright: "Hallelujah"
19. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole: "Somewhere over the rainbow" / "What a beautiful world"
20. Cate Friesen: "Passionately fond of you"
21. Bette Midler: "Laughing matters"
22. Kim Carnes: "Betty Davis eyes"
23. Jane Weidlin: "Rush hour"

Comments

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

Was Weidlin in the Bangles?

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I don't know. That track was on a compilation someone gave me five years ago, and I only know I like it.

[myownghost.livejournal.com]

several songs there i love. #19 is the loveliest thing. for a while a few years ago, i listened to it over and over. there's something oddly appealing about a ukelele, and he sang so sweetly.

[lichtgespinst.livejournal.com]

oh that's great, Van!!! I remember when i first got itunes some years back. I was thrilled that i finally could get single songs and didn't have to buy a whole cd just because i like one or two songs on this cd....

[eloquentwthrage.livejournal.com]

Jane Wiedlin was in Go-Go's.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

The way he combined those two songs, he somehow turned them both on their heads and made them incredibly, beautifully sad. That's a favourite of mine.

[hankdmoose.livejournal.com]

I love iTunes for the party shuffle feature. it's better than regular shuffle in my opinion because it leaves a trace of what you've recently heard, and it's got a short future playlist so you can see what's coming up.

It makes for one of the most eclectic radio stations one could possibly imagine. Sometimes the transitions it comes up with are very strange, and I can't help but to laugh.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I know, it thrills me to pieces. It's also a great way to try out new artists.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I love how eclectic it is, but I've also created "Energy Mix", "Mellow Mix" and "Serenity Mix" to fit the appropriate mood.

I'm trying party shuffle right now for the first time.

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

OK.

By the way, I noticed your livejournal handle. Are you a Eurythmics fan?

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Is k.d. lang's "Hallelujah" the Leonard Cohen one, too? (I suspect it is.)

You could put together an all-"Hallelujah" set if you could find enough versions. A formerly local friend did a version a couple of years ago that turned out really nice, just him and guitar.

Now that song is going to go through my head all afternoon. I'm not complaining, mind.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's on her Hymns of the 49th Parallel album, all covers of other Canadian songwriters (Joni Mitchell, Jane Siberry, Neil Young, etc.). It is also the best version, even better than Rufus Wainwright's (and he is my favourite artist nowadays). This CD would be one of my desert island diskx.

[eloquentwthrage.livejournal.com]

Indeed I am. eloquent with rage was first a 'zine, now it's my blog. I have lived and breathed Annie and Eurythmics for almost 25 years now.

[eloquentwthrage.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot to show you that... :-)

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

It sounds like a very good CD. I think I need to dig up a copy of it sometime, or put it on a Christmas gift list.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Which video is that from? I noticed the character in "Little Bird".

[eloquentwthrage.livejournal.com]

That character actually appears in a triad of videos from the Savage album, "Beethoven," "I Need a Man" and "You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart." (Technically, she's in a few more as well; Dave and Annie made videos for all the songs on the album, but the three above were the only ones released commercially.)

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

Nice icon. :-)

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

Almost all of them are now on Youtube.

[eloquentwthrage.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[eloquentwthrage.livejournal.com]

Then there's this one...